They do say offense is the best form of defence. Today, former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar came out fighting during Gabriel Rufián's turn to question him in the commission investigating his PP party's funding. For his part, Rufián ended up comparing him with the most famous fictional mafia godfather of all, Vito Corleone.
They both already knew that their face-off would be tense. For that reason, Aznar wanted to get the first hit in. One of the first things he said to Rufián, Congress spokesperson for pro-independence Catalan party ERC was "you are the representative of a coupist party".
"Your party was founded by the coupists of '36", the ERC deputy responded shortly after, referring to the start of the Spanish Civil War. Many of PP's early leading figures, and those of its predecessor party, had been senior officials during the Franco dictatorship. Aznar fired back: "you are repeat offenders, you already tried a coup d'état in 1934", referring to a failed attempt to create a Catalan state.
An incisive Rufián managed to throw Aznar off a few times, but especially the commission's president, Pedro Quevedo (Nuevas Canarias), thanks to his constant interruptions. Sitting next to Rufián, deputy Fernando Martínez Maíllo (PP) couldn't stop himself reacting out loud to the ERC deputy's comments.
Everyone accused, "except the waiters at the wedding"
More substantially, the ERC deputy dragged up all Aznar's dirty laundry, starting with all the ministers from his government convicted of corruption (Aznar argued that none of them have been convicted for "the exercise of their political role") and the list of guests to the former prime minister's daughter's wedding, which "seemed more like a cartel". Rufián listed some of those who attended the wedding, like Correa, el Bigotes, Rodrigo Rato, Jaume Mata and even Berlusconi, all of whom have been investigated by justice. This led him to ask: "how is it possible that, from the wedding, only the waiters are left to be charged?".
Rufián, who accused Aznar of forming part of a "coupist party with corrupt politicians in prison", showed images of the former prime minister alongside dictators like Teodoro Obiang and Muammar Gaddafi and reminded him that PP members described the slush fund as "Aznar's mess". The former PM said he'd gone to the Congress to fulfil his obligation, not to "listen to tavern phrases and tavern titles".
The deputy, who accused Aznar of paying for his daughter's wedding with money from corrupt schemes, asked him what had happened to his party, which ended up with "900 charged" and the head of UDEF (financial crimes unit of the Spanish national police) describing it as a "parasite on the institutions to enrich itself". In turn, Azner continued denying any link to corruption, arguing his innocence and, above all, valuing his time as prime minister: "I won't apologise for having created millions of jobs".
Rufián's final set piece was to ask Aznar about the film The Godfather, which starts, as it happens, with the wedding of the titular godfather's daughter. The ERC deputy recalls that, as the wedding is taking place, Corleone is in his office stroking a cat, dealing with a request and he asks: "what have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully?". "You're only missing the cat", he told Aznar, who gave a curious response: "don't continue on this track, it won't go well for you".